“I grabbed him by the neck and stabbed him with the knife several times.” This has been the statement that José Antonio A. C. has made before the court that is trying him. The man has acknowledged that he killed his recently turned 11-year-old son in his home in the Valencian town of Sueca on April 3, 2022 after separating from his wife and arguing with the minor. He has indicated that the murder would not have occurred if his ex-partner had stopped the divorce proceedings and has even confessed that he allowed the minor to take her mother’s mobile phone while she stabbed him.
The trial against the accused was to be held in mid-December before a popular jury in the Valencia Court but had to be postponed until today due to the possibility that the deliberation would coincide with the Christmas holidays.
The man faces a sentence, as requested by the prosecution, of permanent prison that can be reviewed for the crime of murder with the aggravating circumstance of kinship. In addition, this accusation requests seven years in prison for the accused for one crime of threats, another of abuse, another of breaking a sentence, and habitual physical and mental abuse.
The event took place on April 3, 2022 in the family home located in Sueca, months after the accused, 47 years old, had divorced his wife and shared custody of the minor had been agreed upon – a highly desired child after three artificial inseminations and that she turned eleven two days before the crime– after 17 years of marriage in which the mother suffered physical and psychological abuse, according to the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution.
That day, Sunday, the defendant killed his son, who had just turned 11, stabbing him repeatedly and deeply with two kitchen knives in the neck, face, torso and head, according to the accusations. The murder occurred after an argument. At one point, the accused told his son ‘Vaig a per tú!’ –I’m coming for you–, so the minor sent a WhatsApp message to his mother telling her that she could go for him.
The mother tried to contact him by phone without receiving a response until the accused allowed her son to pick up the cell phone. Her mother could only hear her son calling her with a heartbreaking cry: ‘mommy’ and she cut off the communication.
In this regard, the accused has clarified that the relationship he had with his ex-partner until they separated was “good” and has denied insults or physical abuse. In 2021, he explained about her, the woman told him that she wanted to separate from her because she had fallen in love with another man and there they argued, but he has denied having grabbed her by the neck. “I reacted badly but I never insulted her,” he added despite the fact that there is a conviction against him for having grabbed her by the neck.
The woman then left the family home with her son and went to her parents’ home, located in the Valencian town of Cullera. He has indicated that he kept calling her and tried to get back with her several times but has denied that he violated the restraining order against her.
The relationship he had with his son, he said, was “very good” and he stated that up to the time of the events he had not had “a collision” or an argument with the minor. On the minor’s birthday, April 1, 2022, he explained that he called his ex-wife to bring the child to him on Sunday so he could celebrate that day with him.
Moments before the meal, he said, he argued with his son because “he didn’t want to be there and wanted to go with his mother. He wasn’t comfortable. He told me that I wasn’t his father and that’s where everything that happened happened. We “We hooked up, I grabbed him by the neck and stabbed him with the knife several times. The boy was still,” he stated, stating that he does not remember the number of stab wounds he gave him.
The accused has indicated that during the attack his son’s mobile phone rang and he allowed him to take it. She was his mother and he could hear her calling him ‘mom’ before the communication was cut off. He has defended that at that time he was drunk since he had problems with alcohol as well as depression.
“In 2022 he was disabled at work due to depression and alcoholism and was taking medication for anxiety,” he said. After her testimony, she testified at her hearing that her ex-wife was protected by a paraban and behind closed doors to avoid her re-victimization.
